Reflection 04/28/2019

Today is the 2nd Sunday of Easter, better known as Divine Mercy Sunday. In the year 2000, at the canonization Mass for St. Faustina, the saint to whom Jesus revealed that He wanted the Sunday after Easter to be dedicated to His mercy, St. John Paul II declared the Sunday after Easter Divine Mercy Sunday. Jesus told St. Faustina that on this day the floodgates of His mercy are open to all sinners open to receiving it.
Looking at the Gospel today can help us to see why Our Lord wanted today to be focused on His mercy. We are told by the Apostle, St. John, who was an eyewitness, that Jesus appeared to them on the very same evening that He rose from the dead. Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven, whose sins you retain are retained.” Jesus gave them the power and the authority to forgive sins. The Holy Spirit gives bishops and priest the ability to forgive sins in confession, and Jesus’ command to forgive sins gives them the authority. If you or anyone else asks the question, “Why do Catholics have to go to a priest to be forgiven?” All one has to do is read the 20th Chapter of St. John’s Gospel.
This Sunday gives us the scriptural foundation for sacramental forgiveness of sins. No wonder why Jesus Himself wanted today to be set up to His Divine Mercy. As part of St. John Paul II declaring today Divine Mercy Sunday, he also made available to all a plenary indulgence. A plenary indulgence. This is what was declared:

a plenary indulgence, granted under the usual conditions (sacramental confession, Eucharistic communion and prayer for the intentions of Supreme Pontiff) to the faithful who, on the Second Sunday of Easter or Divine Mercy Sunday, in any church or chapel, in a spirit that is completely detached from the affection for a sin, even a venial sin, take part in the prayers and devotions held in honor of Divine Mercy, or who, in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament exposed or reserved in the tabernacle, recite the Our Father and the Creed, adding a devout prayer to the merciful Lord Jesus (e.g. Merciful Jesus, I trust in you!")

May all souls who are need of Jesus’ mercy today trust in Him, and humbly ask to receive it in sacramental confession. Our sins can become comfortable in our lives, so much that we begin to prefer it to the freedom and joy that can only come with living in Christ. Jesus’ mercy can transform our lives in ways unimaginable, so long as we trust in Him. “O blood and water, which gushed forth from the heart of Jesus as fount of mercy for us, I trust in You!”